For Danielle
Gossman-Vitory, the hardest part of aliya was proving she was Jewish enough to
become an immigrant and, even more, Jewish enough to get married in Israel.

Her parents had
married in a Reform synagogue and had no valid ketuba(marriage
certificate). She was asked to produce her grandparents’ marriage certificate
instead but this had gone missing and no one knew where it was. Someone
suggested a photo of her grandmother’s grave in a Jewish cemetery, but this
proved to be not enough.

In preparation for the happy day, Yehosha
discovered that to register for marriage he would have to prove he is a Jew.
Taking a cue from his immigrant friends’ bitter experiences with the rabbinical
bureaucracy in Israel, he began searching for proof of his Judaism. What he
found exceeded his expectations: a 100-year-old document classifying his great-grandmother
as a member of the “Jewish race.”

Rabbi Shaul Farber, the chairman of the non-profit
organization ITIM Resources and Advocacy for Jewish Life, said that Bloomberg’s
story points to a serious problem in the marriage system in Israel:

“We at ITIM
see cases like Yehosha’s every day. Sometimes we find creative solutions, like
looking in various archives. But sometimes there is no solution.”

“The [Israeli] government
spends at least $450 million annually for Orthodox education, congregations,
support of ultra-Orthodox adult ‘students’ and gives under $50,000 to Masorti,”
[Barbara Berci] said.

“Those of us who buy bonds
or give to Israeli groups and causes, and I do, may be unwittingly supporting
pro-Orthodox policies with their funding. Maybe we should set as a standard for
each gift whether it supports democratic and pluralistic values.”

Daniel Gordis: Israel’s conversion is only a specific example of
a much wider problem…and that is Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. It is one of the
greatest problems facing religious Judaism.

In the
Unites States, there is no Chief Rabbinate and people with religious ideas have
to compete in the public square for the loyalty and the allegiance of the
communities with which they want to work. The Chief Rabbinate in Israel has no
obligation to try to be relevant to anyone’s lives…or to understand where
people are coming from.

Their
power comes from the State as a result of which they have become completely
disengaged from the important issues facing Israeli society and conversion is
just one of those issues.

It is not
a very Zionistic Rabbinate either. So conversion is obviously an important
issue but it is not critical. I think the Chief Rabbinate changing it
dramatically is very important for the future of the Jewish State.

This is why the
continued existence of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel is an
existential threat to the unity of the Jewish People.

Yes, work must be done in
the Knesset to reform the system of government, but the connection between the
Jewish State and the Jewish People is not up to the State alone. It is an issue
for all Jews, around the world.

Who is a
Jew, and who gets to decide? Why are increasing numbers of local municipal
rabbis, all appointed and subsidized by the state, raising obstacles to
conversions approved by other Orthodox rabbis? Why is the whole process of
conversion being made into a machine for exclusion?

How have so many other
issues having to do with the use and abuse of public space in Israel been
allowed to fall under the veto power of the ultra-Orthodox parties?

Nitzan Horowitz
(Meretz) is the Knesset member who works hardest to separate religion and
state, according to a studyby the Open Knesset website and the Reform
Movement’s Center for Religion and State released on Monday.

This
situation derives from the perception of religious identity mainly in a
negative context, as a collection of prohibitions and restrictions aimed at
differentiating the Jew from his surroundings - first of all from his
non-Jewish surroundings, and also from his non-religious surroundings.

In denying Zionism its
religious essence, the Israeli left is proving to be inept not only at
understanding the past but also at planning for the future. Increasingly, it is
governed by a humanist ethos that sees the occupation and the horrific acts
committed to preserve it as an affront to universalist values.

But there is a very
strong argument to be made that the occupation is also an absolute violation of
Judaism’s core tenets, and it’s an argument that those 70 percent of Israelis
who believe in chosenness should hear. The problem is that there’s no one to
make it; for the Israeli left, religion is anathema.

Harvey Hames is a professor of history at
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the author of “I (do not) Believe:
Israel and Judaism — Past, Present, Future” (published in Hebrew by Ktav,
2011).

This Guttman-Avi Chai survey proves that Rabbinic
Judaism is gaining ground over democracy and democratic values.

The
implications of this for the future of Israel are not to be underestimated.
Belief in God is one thing; however, the general acceptance of an intimate link
between belief and observance in a state that prides itself first and foremost
on being democratic is a recipe for disaster.

The survey found that Israelis are not fond of
the country’s “either-or” school system, which forces them to categorize their
children as either “Orthodox” or “secular” from kindergarten.

Many want the
option of sending their children to schools with more curricular integration.
So, the good news is that the demand for pluralistic, traditional public
education is real. Too bad, then, that such curricula receive precious little
government backing.

"Traditionalism in Israeli society
corresponds, in many ways, to the principles of the popular religion which
Spinoza introduces."

In other words, the laid-back faith of
traditional Israelis is just what Spinoza was hoping for. Most Israeli Jews,
re-politicized by Zionism, have gradually developed an attitude towards
religious tradition that doesn't undermine the state's authority and in many
cases even serves the state's purposes.

The peculiar mix of religious and
national symbols often seen in Israel's public sphere testifies to just how
thoroughly the state has tamed religious tradition for most Israelis.

Yaron Shavit, chairman
of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism:

Israel, being a very
committed Democratic Jewish state can be influenced through democratic
processes and therefore I call on the American Reform Jews to make their
contribution to influence Israel and its society by strengthening the Reform
Israelis and enabling the Israel Reform Movement to grow and influence more and
more Israelis, thereby helping all of us be more proud on Israel, its actions,
and how it is seen by the world.

A two-hour discussion
was conducted on Tuesday in the Knesset between activists and politicians
seeking to abolish the “Tal Law.”

The session, called
“An Army of Half the People?” was initiated by MK Avi Dichter, former public
security minister, and the Forum for Equality in the Burden of Military
Service.

Itai Ben-Horin, an
attorney from the Forum, spoke out strongly against extending the Tal Law,
calling it a “failure,” and citing figures that he said demonstrated a 100
percent increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox men receiving an exemption
from the army between 2002 and 2011.

Hiddush
President, Adv. Rabbi Uri Regev, said in response that “There is no other topic
that enjoys such broad public consensus as the need to stop allowing the mass of yeshiva students from
fulfilling their civic duties.”

Regev
reminded Knesset members that: “Any extension of the Tal Law does a huge
disservice to the proud concept of the Peoples’ Army. The public will not
tolerate continued discrimination in favor of the ultra-Orthodox; any extension
will see great consequences in the next election."

The
Knesset speaker added that the Tal Law was Israel's constitutional test,
saying: "Those who claim that the matter of haredi enlistment to the IDF
can be solved through coercion are throwing sand in the public's eyes."

Journalist-turned-politician Yair Lapid issued a
warning, Monday evening, about extension of the Tal Law, which provides
exemption from military service for draft-are yeshiva students, as an incentive
for them to enter the work force.

Lapid wrote on his Facebook page, "Warning.
They are going to deceive you! By the 31st of July, they will call this by
another name and take their time, but behind our backs, as always, they will
extend the Tal Law again."

Hareidi-religious
soldiers who serve in the Israeli Navy complained on Wednesday that, contrary
to instructions and promises by the IDF that they will have a military service
in which no there will be no involvement of female soldiers, they were forced
to attend a lecture given by a female soldier.

A joint Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee and Constitution, Law and Justice Committee team
approved on Tuesday amendments to the bill seeking to impose tougher measure
against women who falsely use religion as an excuse to avoid military service.

Letter to
the military chief of staff and chief rabbi on women´s singing (Attorney
Ricky Shapiro)

...one
must accept a resolution calling for women's singing in IDF's ceremonies in
which both female and male soldiers are present.

This will
found the IDF as a place where men and women, from all sections of society
serve together, while respecting the freedoms of religion and upholding the
right to equality of all male and female soldiers.

Although
local authorities are desperate for government aid to fund new public
buildings, they are instead receiving millions of shekels from the Housing and
Construction Ministry to build religious institutions.

In some
cases the local councils received funding for religious institutions, such as
mikvehs (ritual baths), without even asking for it. Yet it isn't even the
Housing Ministry's job to provide funding for them.

Aviva
Harbater is an Orthodox Jewish activist who lives in Jerusalem. For more
information on KayamaMoms, please visit their website http://www.kayamamoms.org

Together
with some friends, I’ve established an organization called KayamaMoms. I’m
religious, 40 years old and unmarried and I would like to have children. Like
me, there are thousands of women in Israel and the rest of the world who have dreamed
their entire lives about having a family but unfortunately have not yet found
the right partner.

I won’t
hide from you that today’s topic is very personal...

Therefore,
we at KayamaMoms, are creating a supportive and sustainable community that empowers
women who have already decided to take this bold step and will provide advice
and guidance to women who are thinking about becoming single moms.

One
Shabbat in Jerusalem I met a single religious girl in an advanced stage of
pregnancy, who gave a shiur in which she surveyed and explained the halakhic
problems and solutions related to becoming pregnant as a single woman.

The
meeting with her made a tremendous impression on me, and already before the age
of 30 I told myself that if I reached the (advanced) age of 36-37 and am still
single – I would do as she did.

Students attending
national religious schools are to begin studying a new subject next year – sex
education, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

The new course, titled "Home, education and
family," will deal with contraception, premarital relationships, modesty
and the status of women. It is also to deal with "family purity," or
the Jewish law that addresses married couples' conduct during menstruation.

Rabbis, therapists and
religious homosexuals have welcomed conclusions published by the Israeli
Psychological Association on "conversion therapy", defining the
document as "good news".

Rabbi Ron Yosef of the
Hod organization (an acronym for religious gays in Hebrew) told Ynet that he
had asked the Psychological Association himself to discuss conversion therapy,
adding that he was pleased with the conclusions and calling on therapists to
implement them.

In my
conversations with a number of rabbis and others I respect in the community I
found a willful ignorance on their part in discussing Rav Bina.

They either
didn’t want to believe the many stories over the years of young men who say
they were emotionally scarred from the experience or suggested that everyone
should know by now that Netiv Aryeh was a kind of Talmudic boot camp where
“tough love” is doled out for the good of the students.

The Ramat
Aviv Mall may let two new restaurants open on Shabbat, said a senior source
from the mall. The mall denies it. The restaurants, branches of the Brasserie
and Turquoise, will be allowed to open on Saturdays if they choose to do so,
said the source.

“They
don’t want to live a life of poverty,” Amsalem said of haredi youth.
“They want to find a way to support their families. They don’t want to live in
a world of extremes. They want to find a way for things to be a little more
tolerant in their communities, and slowly but surely people are starting to get
that message, even in the haredi community.”

Amsalem maintains
that his calls for increasing the employment rates within the haredi
population, enforcing compulsory national service, passing legislation that
would encourage the establishment of haredi schools that would teach secular
studies, and calling for the modernization of the rabbinic gentry are views
that are espoused both throughout Israeli society and by most within the haredi
community.

On the topics of
racism and sexism, Rabbi Amsalem was equally refreshing. He stands firmly
against separate buses and sidewalks and the eradication of images of women and
even little girls from everyday life.

He simply finds no basis in centuries of
Jewish law for the extremist views that have resulted in the demonization of
women.

Rabbi Amsalem also stands against discrimination against Ethiopian
Israelis. One of the laws he would propose in the Knesset is that any
organization that is even suspected of racism or sexism would lose state
funding.

[Rabbi Dov Lipman] told the listeners that he
came into possession of the rock about seven years ago, shortly after he and
his young family had made aliyah, settling in the city of Beit Shemesh, about
30 miles from Jerusalem.

Gesturing with it in his hand, the 40-year-old
speaker explained that he was nearly beaned by the rock (part of a multi-object
barrage) as he innocently stood on the street outside his newfound home.